Da-Garn Ep. 9: A Gift from Redlone

Redlone addresses his robot soldiers and says that they’ve developed a probe mech designed specifically to locate planet energy reservoirs called the Redlone Eye, which they will send down to Earth in huge numbers. The Redlone Eyes are shot down to Earth where they drill underground and begin scanning. Hotaru wakes up from her sleep and senses something is wrong. At Tsukushi the next day, Hikaru’s mother offers Tadashin dessert while Hikaru asks Seiji if he went anywhere during spring break. Seiji says that he hasn’t thought of anywhere to go and Hikaru says she wants to go someplace nice before school starts because her family trip was ruined by the tsunami. Tadashin says that he’s been given a few days of leave which he’ll use to visit his home village of Misato. He invites Seiji and Hikaru to accompany him there. Seiji dismisses the idea of going to a backwater village, but quickly changes his mind after Tadashin mentions all the young girls there. Redlone’s robot assistant reports that they’ve received data from the Redlone Eyes showing an unusual heat source coming from a point on a large fault line in Japan called the Fossa Magna. The assistant suggests that they investigate the point more but Redlone orders a drilling machine and a squad of Metal Battler saucers to be sent out immediately. After driving through a country road full of boulders and a rickety bridge, Tadashin, Hikaru and Seiji arrive at Misato. To Hikaru and Seiji’s dismay, Misato is neither a utopia of greenery nor full of young girls as Tadashin claims. Tadashin greets his mother Kiyo, who tells him that he needs to come back and live in the village. The village chief explains that all the young people left Misato and only the elderly remain. Without any tourist attractions, Misato is slowly dying out. Kiyo says that Tadashin must stay and help restore the village. Tadashin protests but Kiyo reminds him that his father was buried in Misato.

At night, Hotaru sends a firefly to Seiji. It guides him to a huge hole in the ground where Redlone’s drilling machine is working. Redlone’s assistant informs him that they’ve detected a human at the drilling site and Redlone orders it to be destroyed. A Metal Battler immediately flies out of the hole and begins firing at Seiji. Seiji calls Da-Garn and suits up while evading the Metal Battler. The Metal Battler corners Seiji but Da-Garn arrives and kicks it away. Redlone orders all the remaining Metal Battlers to attack and Seiji has Da-Garn combine into Da-Garn X. The villagers notice the fighting and Seiji tells Da-Garn X to keep his distance from Misato. Da-Garn X says he’s having trouble with the Metal Battlers’ rapid fire attacks, so Seiji summons the Landers to assist. Tadashin has the villagers evacuate to safety and they run into Kiyo and Hikaru who are looking for Seiji. Hikaru spots the costumed Seiji just as the Landers arrive and transform to robot mode. Big Lander tells Seiji to give his orders and the latter asks if the Landers can combine like the Sabers did. The Landers confirm that they can, but before Seiji can give the order one of the Metal Battlers breaks off and fires at them. Seiji is knocked back and the Director flies out of his hands and down the side of the steep hill he’s on. The Metal Battlers transform into robots and start overwhelming Da-Garn X and the Landers. Tadashin spots the Director falling from Seiji and surmises that it must be the robots’ remote control. He runs to get it and Kiyo says that he’ll get killed. Tadashin retorts that he’s a policeman and his duty is to protect peace even at the risk of his own life. Tadashin manages to run up the hill and returns the Director to Seiji just as one of the Metal Battlers fires at them. However, Da-Garn X shields them with his body and Seiji quickly orders the Landers to combine. The Landers combine into the giant robot Land Bison! Land Bison blocks the Metal Battlers’ shots with his Bison Shield before destroying two of them with his Land Crusher and Land Cannons. The remaining Metal Battlers transform back to saucer mode and fire from the air but Land Bison throws his shield and uses it to reflect Land Cannon shots, damaging the saucers and allowing him and Da-Garn X to destroy them. Seiji thanks Tadashin for his help and Redlone smirks that they haven’t found the drilling machine which will soon reach the mystery heat source. Hikaru finds Seiji stumbling back after hurting his arm from the fall. Kiyo tells Tadashin that he no longer has to stay in the village and that she’s proud of him for being a policeman. The drilling machine reaches the heat source and it turns out to be a reservoir of heated groundwater. Redlone is furious and prepares to slice his assistant in half again. Misato uses the reservoir to open a hot spring resort called the Robot Springs, restoring the village to a prosperous state much to Tadashin’s relief.